Episode 148: The Truffles of the Fiend Folio
July 10th, 2015 | Robin
The Gaming Hut acquires extra filigrees and an extended backstory as we examine the cognitive investments gamers make when they learn to love detail.
The Food Hut takes a turn for the imaginary in response to this medieval recipe for griddle-roasted unicorn, brought to our attention by Terry O’Carroll. What happens when F20 adventurers start to regard monsters and mythical creatures not just as opponents, but as ingredients in fantasy-world cuisine?
In Ask Ken and Robin, Sean Phelan asks for ground rules on killing key NPCs offstage.
Finally we find ourselves in the Eliptony Hut, inspired by a CIA document drop on Project Blue Book, to investigate disinformation campaigns waged against UFOlogists.
Look out, Lieutenants of evil! The sinister mastermind you work for has taken some time to shake the post-conquest blues. But he’ll be back soon, and your survival depends on impressing him. Thankfully, our lead sponsor Atlas Games has just what you need: their delightful new card game of competitive minion-stacking, Three Cheers for Master.
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One thing you overlooked is the question of “sympathetic magic” from eating the flesh of particular creatures. Surely eating dragon meat has some effect on the diner (if nothing else, a greedy, proud, selfish person who eats dragon sounds like a good candidate for awakening any latent dragonspawn genes in his ancestry). Note that even if this isn’t true, people in the game world will almost certainly believe it is true and behave accordingly.
In our current game of 13th Age, our Paladin has now eaten the hearts of four dragons. It’s not always pretty what this causes.
The decadent imperial caste in my swashbucker 3E game dined upon the GryBulGon – a gryphon stuffed in a bulette stuffed in a dragon – at their enormous feasts. When the PCs did kill a dragon one player did consider the value of hauling it back to the city to feed a state dinner.
Lightning Round Question: What was #DeadRaccoonTO veiling out?
Ken, not directly connected to this but I just laid my hands on a free paperback copy o Sax Rohmer’s _Romance of Sorcery_. I am assuming your bookshelf already has a copy but if not let me know and I’ll mail it out to you.
Speaking of UFO cover-ups, Art Bell has a new show on weeknights.
UFOs and John Lears everywhere!
The 1987 video game Dungeon Master had several creatures that spontaneously turned into food when slain: I remember shriekers and worms in the upper levels, and dragons near the end. It was a game convenience to allow a starvation mechanic without requiring the party to leave the dungeon and get food, but I think it was influential on paper RPGs too.
Thank you for responding to my question guys!
Man, I fall a little behind in the podcast and this is what happens…”whoa, that was my question!”
Thanks again and keep up the good work. (And congrats on the Silver ENnie.)
Cheers
Sean